The present invention relates in general to a telecommunication network and more particularly to a service request processor in a local service activation management environment for management and processing of requests.
Many services are offered by local service providers. Such services include, but are not limited to, telephone services, internet services, home shopping services, etc. Often, a local service provider does not offer expanded services, i.e., services out of their service area. Thus, customers are forced to rely on larger, i.e., national and/or international, service providers for services provided outside the service area of the local service provider. For example, many local telephone service providers do not offer long distance service. Customers of the local providers rely on long distance companies for long distance telephone service. However, several problems are inherent when offering services through a secondary provider. One such problem is that the integration of services between the two providers is not streamlined, creating connection problems such as intermittent service and sometimes even total failure of the service. Other such problems include validating that a service is authorized or that it has been cancelled or revoked. Further, larger service providers often must rely on the local service providers to collect payment for the services rendered by the larger service providers.
Many of the larger service providers offer similar or the same services to customers of local service providers while simultaneously providing expanded services to the customers of the local service providers. This gives customers the option to choose alternate, and often more reliable, service. However, a larger service provider often is limited to utilizing the systems of the local service providers. For example, a large telephone company could offer localized services to customers but would have to utilize the existing wiring of the local telephone company in order to avoid the high cost of installing wiring between the customer and the large telephone company. Thus, the larger service provider is left at the mercy of the local service providers through which its services are offered, and which are often hostile to the larger service provider attempting to enter xe2x80x9ctheirxe2x80x9d market.
An important aspect of achieving reliable service is efficient processing of service requests. The end-to-end customer care workflow (order taking, local service provider (LSP) provisioning, customer billing, etc.) must be as efficient as possible. This process accounts for a large percentage of costs associated with acquiring and servicing customers. This process currently suffers from fallouts and errors caused by inefficient management and processing of the service requests. A transaction processing engines receives and manages the requests from the LSAM core systems in a real-time interface format. The lack of a high performance engine deteriorates online inquire and ordering processes. An efficient transaction processing engine must perform several key functions at once. These functions may include validation, translation, and response processing of requests.
It can be seen that there is a need for a service request processor in the local activation management environment for management and processing of requests.
It can also be seen that there is a need for a service request processor in the local activation management environment to isolate local service provider specific processing and request translations.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention generally discloses a service request processor in the local activation management environment, and more particularly describes a processor that isolates local service provider specific processing and request translations.
The present invention solves the above-described problems by providing a system request processor in the local activation management environment that isolates local service provider specific processing and request translations.
A system, method, and article of manufacture in accordance with the claimed invention provides a service request processor in a local service activation management environment for management purposes. First, a core telecommunication system is interfaced for handling core telecommunication system requests and responses received from the core telecommunication system. The core telecommunication system requests generated by the core telecommunication system are validated. The core telecommunication system requests are processed if the processing can be done locally. If the request can not be done locally, it is translated to a predetermined protocol. Next, the request that is sent to a local service provider is and a response to the request is generated and received by the local service management environment.
Other embodiments of a system in accordance with the principles of the invention may include alternative or optional additional aspects. One such aspect of the present invention is generating an error message upon failure of the validation of the core telecommunication system requests generated by the core telecommunication system.
Another aspect of the present invention includes validating a content of the core telecommunication system requests generated by the core telecommunication system. Further, an error message upon one of the core telecommunication system requests not being complete.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the service activation manager determines a status of the local service provider responses. Also, the sending of the local service provider responses to either the core telecommunication system or a fault management application is based on the status.
These and various other advantages and features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and form a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and the objects obtained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings which form a further part hereof, and to accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated and described specific examples of an apparatus in accordance with the invention.